🏢 Stage 5 — Sourcing Strategy

Now we define: How will Acme go to market to find the right partner(s)?

👥 Who Is Involved

Role	Description
Procurement Team	Sourcing specialists who manage vendor selection process
CIO / CTO	Chief Information Officer / Chief Technology Officer
Enterprise Architects	Provide architectural direction and constraints
Finance Team	Validate financial approach and constraints
Legal Team	Ensure contractual and compliance considerations

Acme decides the engagement model for the sourcing initiative.

Option	Benefits	Trade-offs
Single vendor	Simpler governance, single accountability, easier coordination, unified reporting	Higher dependency on one partner, limited best-of-breed specialization, potential lock-in
Multi-vendor	Access to specialized expertise, better fit for different workstreams, competitive tension between vendors	More complex governance, higher coordination effort, unclear accountability if roles are not well-defined

Acme decides how the work will be packaged for the market.

Package	Benefits	Trade-offs
End-to-end transformation	Single integrated scope covering strategy, migration, and operations; easier accountability across the full journey	Larger commitment, longer evaluation cycle, higher dependency on selected partner
Migration project	Clear project boundary, easier to estimate, suitable for workload movement or data center exit	May not address operating model, governance, or post-migration optimization
Managed services	Suitable for steady-state operations, SLA-driven delivery, predictable run cost	Less focus on transformation; quality depends on clear SLAs, scope boundaries, and governance
Platform build	Strong fit for cloud foundation, landing zone, automation, security, and service catalog setup	Requires clear ownership after build; benefits may be limited if adoption and operating model are not defined

Acme decides how vendors will be paid and how commercial risk will be shared.

Model	Benefits	Trade-offs
Fixed price	Predictable cost, easier budget approval, clear commercial baseline	Works best only when scope is well-defined; change requests can increase cost and delay execution
Time & Material	Flexible for evolving scope, useful when requirements are unclear, faster to start	Cost can increase if effort is not controlled; requires strong governance and tracking
Managed services	Predictable recurring cost, suitable for steady-state operations, supports SLA-based delivery	Less flexible for major scope changes; service quality depends heavily on SLA design and governance
Outcome-based	Aligns vendor payment with business results, encourages ownership and innovation	Harder to define measurable KPIs; disputes can arise if outcomes are influenced by factors outside vendor control

Acme defines which vendors are eligible to participate in the sourcing process.

Criteria	Why It Matters	Trade-offs / Watchouts
Large-scale cloud transformation experience	Ensures the vendor has handled complex migration, modernization, and operating model changes	Past experience must be relevant to Acme’s scale, industry, and technology landscape
SAP migration capability	Critical if SAP workloads are in scope, especially for business-critical systems	Generic cloud migration experience is not enough; SAP sizing, downtime planning, and dependency mapping matter
Multi-cloud expertise	Supports environments involving Azure, AWS, private cloud, or hybrid platforms	Broad capability should not hide shallow expertise; validate depth in the platforms actually in scope
Global delivery capability	Enables support across regions, time zones, and delivery centers	Global scale can add coordination complexity if ownership, escalation, and governance are unclear

These decisions are not independent.

They are linked:

Whenever you face such decisions, ask: